Expat and travel blog featuring stories on living overseas destinations, as well as some stuff on the expat blogosphere too.

March 2013

03/28/2013

There are a few things that we all do when we go abroad - or at any rate *should definitely do* when we go abroad, among them

pack enough clothes, especially a warm jacket and jumper if it's going to be cold

ensure we have all the right cover for illness/ injury/ car/ posessions

make sure passport is up to date

have all accommodation and transport sorted

There are of course plenty of blog posts out there offering some good basic advice on the subject, such as this one, plus the in-depth reviews on places like TripAdvisor regarding specific locations and all they have to offer.

One thing, however, that many of us perhaps don't consider in detail is road safety when abroad. And to remedy this, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have just started up a campaign to lower the incidence of British people being involved in road accidents overseas.

road traffic deaths are the most common cause of death for British nationals in Thailand and cause a high number of hospitalisations

The FCO also highlight some unusual road laws around Europe which I'm sure many of us would previously have been unaware of, including the following:

In Belarus it's illegal to drive a car that's dirty

By law in Germany you're required to have winter tyres on your car at certain times of year

In Scandinavia you're legally required to have your headlights on all the time while driving, day or night

All drivers in France must carry a breathalyser

Driving abroad obviously brings different levels of risk depending on where you are. A look at the stats worldwide for road accidents shows that Sweden is the safest, while there are popular expat destinations with about ten times as many fatalities per 100,000 of population.

A lot of the risk will depend on a number of factors, and these are likely to include

local driving customs and regulation

roads infrastructure

the numbers and types of vehicles on the road

weather

geography/ topography

local investment in road safety

If you're heading off abroad and expecting to do any driving while you're there, then check out the FCO's page (link above) and stay safe.

03/27/2013

The phrase 'medical tourism' is one that's grown over the past while in terms of how often it appears. In fact just a couple of decades ago it would have been, I imagine, not even in existence, and undoubtedly not the phenomenon it's now recognised as.

Medical tourism refers to the movement of people abroad for the purpose of (in the main) elective procedures, which they pay for privately. It's something that is increasingly in the health news, and in many countries is now recognised as an industry, with some areas now actively encouraging medical tourism and offering the services of professionals in dedicated healthcare facilities such as the well-known Healthcare City in Dubai.

Of course, if you live abroad and require medical assistance you will need either to be enrolled in the state healthcare system (if it's adequate and if this is possible) or in most cases buy international health cover. Treatment under private international health cover doesn't come under the category of medical tourism, however, since of course when you're resident abroad it's not actually tourism, it's expatriation - even if it's not for an indefinite priod of time.

And as some people from the UK go abroad to live, or head off to a foreign country for an elective procedure, so there are foreign nationals who arrive in the UK to pay for treatment. According to the BMJ, there are in fact a greater number of UK residents going abroad to receive treatment than international patients travelling to the UK for NHS or private treatment.

03/25/2013

If you're looking for somewhere warm to spend time overseas, you could do worse than rock up in the Persian Gulf. While Parisians are pulling on their overcoats and experiencing a rather bracing temperature well below 10 Celsius as they go about their business today, in Kuwait it's an extremely pleasant 30 degrees.

It's perhaps no wonder then that the Gulf has for a good while now been an expat destination of choice for many. Indeed, if you look at the demographics of, for instance, Dubai - the population is in fact majority expatriate. Fewer than a fifth of Dubai's residents are UAE nationals, with the rest of the populace being made up of folk from all around the globe, with the biggest single group of Western expats being from the UK.

In Kuwait, there's a similarly expat-heavy population, although the ratio of expats to nationals isn't quite as high, with around two thirds of people in the country being foreign nationals.

It's probably a fair guess that, given the pattern of expatriate employment in Kuwait, initially it won't be the more highly skilled jobs that are affected. But given Kuwait's current birth rate coupled with its very high number fo expats, it looks like the plan will result in quite a major lowering of the population, which could have some attendent economic effects that could be pretty noticeable.

I'll update more on this story in a couple of months, or as soon as there's any more substantive news on the plan.

03/21/2013

It's just a fact of life that something in one country (or region) will have a different price tag as compared with somewhere else. So if you live in the most expensive city in the world (reputedly Tokyo these days, then expect to pay that bit more for your everyday outgoings.

In fact, the price differences between places are very cleverly exploited in the money markets, in deals that are known as arbitrage - which apparently offer the chance of risk-free profit at no cost. I'd love to know how that actually works, as it sounds like a fun way of supplementing the old salary. But hey, I'm not a stockbroker so will have to make do with saving cash by shopping at Aldi.

Bit of a digression there - apologies. One of the biggest variances in price you'll see globally is that of healthcare. As a recent article in the wonderful Health Insurance Magazine points out, the "equipment and expertise" required to carry out an MRI scan are pretty much the same wherever you'd find the procedure being carried out - but the amount charged for it can be vastly different.

The article quotes the director of medical services for health insurer AXA PPP International, who highlights the fact that big price differences can be seen even between places that aren't that far apart, such as the UK mainland and Jersey.

Among the reasons for price variance:

stage of country's economic development

different 'models of healthcare provision'

the number of expatriates resident

the amount of per-capita GDP spent on healthcare

As healthcare becomes more and more of a global phenomenon, will we be likely to see some lessening of the sometimes sheer cost differences for healthcare? Probably not any time in the near future...

03/18/2013

Of all the broader expat territories, the Middle East probably gets more column inches in the expatriate news pages than others. If that's not scientifically proveable, it's still the case that the Middle East certainly has prominent profile as an overseas living destination.

The reasons for the continued interest in this area's expat potential? Well, there's a fair bit to say about that - and given it's a diverse and populous part of the world, there's no single reason for its popularity as an expat destination.

One of the main reasons, of course, is that there are a lot of work opportunities for skilled people - and while specific destinations like the UAE have a lot of UK nationals in them (recent government stats via the IPPR stats say 65,000), only a small proportion of these expats are retired.

So, while over a quarter of UK expats in Germany are retired - and almost a quarter of expats in Oz are retired too - only around 1% of UAE expats are at that stage of life.

This could of course change over time, due to changes in tax legislation, pensions, property prices and so on. And as parts of the UAE such as Dubai continie to build property, it's not far fetched to imagine developments being built specifically for people who want to retire in the sun.

While the countries that have the most opprtunities for international assignments are (in no order) the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia Bahrain, Turkey, and Kuwait - there alre also expats scattered around the rest of the area.

03/14/2013

There's something about this country that makes it globally appealing. And when you look at all the things the wonderful Italia has going for it, then it's treally no surprise:

The culture: from Opera to literature ancient and modern, Italy is a truly magical place, with pretty much one of the most interesting histories of anywhere on the planet.

The food and drink. Okay, so we all love pizza and tiramisu and cappucino and so on - but the varied regional cuisine of Italy holds many delicious suprises even for people who know the country pretty well - pasta alla norcina rosso? Yes please.

The sport. Serie A - need I say more?

The countryside. There's no doubtabout it, Italy has some amazing countryside - in fact if you're used to spending your days in a concrete and tarmac metropolis, a trip to Tuscany may actually overwhelm in its visual charm.

The Italian healthcare system. Placed second in the entire list when the World Health Organisation compiled rankings of health care systems internationally, Italy's health system continues to be very highly regarded, as this international insurance provider's country guide states - although as is pointed out, having cover means not needing to know the language or the system. On top of this, many state systems charge patients towards treatment - so even short term EHIC holders and longer term residents registered with the system won't necessarily get free treatment in European Economic Area countries.

Italian cities. Rome, Palermo, Naples, Florence, Venice, Milan - and more! Amazing to think that one country can offer so much captivating countryside as well as so many great, great cities.

03/12/2013

I've read a couple of really interesting and unusual expat stories of late, which are both (coincidentally) the stories of women from the United States wo've carved out interesting new careers in the arts and culture industries this side of the Atlantic.

The first of these unusual expatriate stories was the fascinating tale of Jessica Fox, a NASA employee at their mega-brainy sounding "jet propulsion laboratory" who nurtured a dream of moving to rural Scotland and owning a bookshop there.

And so she did. Now, the most interesting part here perhaps isn't the fact that a high-achieving and (obviously) massively intelligent individual had the imaginative candlepower and energy to make the move.

The interesting part of things is more about how the idea for that move formed. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Fox says she allowed herself an hour of unstructured time each day just to "play, dream, and write down whatever images came to me". And out of those sessions of creative freedom, an idea emerged:

One particular vision recurred for months. It was an image of a bookshop, by the sea, in a town in the west of Scotland. The more I explored it, the more I was haunted by its dusty shelves. I could smell the sea over the green sea cliffs and almost touch the young woman sitting behind the shop's front counter. One morning when I closed my eyes, the young woman in her woolly jumper looked up from her book and I realised it was me.

At which point you do just kind of quietly think "wow". How many of us - even with good jobs and what to 99.9% of outsiders would seem like the ideal life - actually want something different, maybe even on a different continent?

The second unusual expat story I read recently was in the FT, and it was the story of Nancy Bishop, who in 1993 left Chicago for Prague to work in theatre.

Bishop says that she'd been "barely aware" of Czechoslovakia until working on a play by a Czech writer. And on arrival in the country, somethign seemed to click:

When I got to Prague, it just seemed too interesting to
leave.

So there it is - sometimes people become expatriates by a process of dreams and intuition, while others find a place that just seems to interesting to leave. To be honest when I visit places like the Quartier Latin in Paris or the Old Town, Amsterdam - well, they always feel way too interesting to leave, too. But much as I'd like to stay, there's always a pesky return flight home booked!

03/11/2013

Like many of us, I imagine, my first thought would be to book a really good holiday somewhere and spend my time soaking up some sunshine and planning my bext moves. Hawaii would be my destination of choice, probably - the perfect place t0 relax and enjoy thinking about what I'd do with my new-found riches.

But what would come after that? I'm sure many of us would consider a move abroad - maybe find accommodation in a glamorous location and head off there to see what life would be like in one of our dream locations. New York, Paris, Hong Kong - wherever.

And it seems that it's not just the newly well-off who fancy a move - according to recent research, over a fifth of millionaires are thinking about becoming expatriates at some point during the next two years. Apparently - and perhaps no surprises here - one of the main reasons people are considering going abroad is because of the UK weather.

While millionaires may be making international moves, it's also expected that the number of employees embarking on international assignments wil continue to rise for at least the next five years. This is in no small part due to number of massively expanding economies such as China's - and we may see even more accelerated growth as and when the global economy recovers from the downturn. International health insurance as a market is also remaining robustly positive, since for employees overseas it's pretty much a necessity.

One of the factors, of course, of a truly globalised world is that emigration patterns will be dynamic - and people will move around more than in the pre-global era. And who knows - maybe, just maybe, I will win the lottery and be on holiday in Hawaii this summer, and a Hong Kong living expat not long after?

03/09/2013

With over a million British nationals living permanently on its shores, it's safe to say that Australia is a firm favourite for people looking to work or retire overseas. And whether it's the warm climate or the friendly and outgoing nature of the Asutralians, it looks like this massive country will continue to be a top destination for expatriates from all corners of the globe for years to come.

Perth is Australia's fourth-largest city by population after Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - and is currently the nation's fastest-growing town. It's a round 2450 miles from Sydney - that's around 40 hours' driving time. Maybe better to book a flight if you're travelling between the two!

03/07/2013

This week it was reported that the health insurance market appears to be in pretty good shape, with one of the major inrternational medical cover providers reporting an 11% rise in the number of members year on year, with a large part of that down to international PMI (iPMI).

In many ways, although the gradient of this particular uptick is pretty steep, it wasn't unexpected (to me at least) that iPMI numbers would be on the up. I say this for a couple of reasons:

Firms expect the number of international assignments to continue rising for a number of years yet, according to a survey carried out last year. This should mean continued uptake among newly expatriated members of the workforce

In some cases firms who employ staff abroad are unaware of the difference between travel cover and international PMI, and as awareness of this increases, there will be a likely further uptake of iPMI among those who are currently expatriated but not fully health insured.